I am taking a short break from all the unpacking and the sorting and the cleaning and the doing of the housechores. Whew! Like what my friend Vera mentioned this is one part, one hard part, of coming back home after a vacation, going back to the established routine. Not to mention doing all the backlogs :-)
Oh well, I am taking my sweet time. I have not even put up any Christmas decors! I am actually thinking if I still have to put them up, because I already know, I will also be the one who will put them all down. Hehehe Good thing before flying to Manila, I have already shopped and wrapped our Christmas presents for our Sydney based friends :-) because at the back of my mind, I was already expecting this :-)
It was our first time to go back as balikbayans and from this experience, I have learned a few lessons:
A. It is hard, no, make that, very hard, to go on long trips with a small bub in tow. With Sam being breastfed, and no hired help or yaya to take care of her, it was still us who took care of both of them even if we met friends and went out. There was help from family, but only during weekends. Liam also didn't want to be left with the care of Lolo or Lola, so Alvin and I took turns of staying home with them if we needed to do an errand like going to the LTO, CAP, or going to the spa. And they were with us every time we met up with friends. Maybe, when they are both older, it would not be as hard :-)
B. The next time I book a flight, I would choose a night flight so the kids would be sleeping most of the time. And when I choose a flight going back home, I will not choose a Sunday. It was almost eleven pm when we got here in Sydney. No more shops to eat as they were already closed. Good thing my brother already left in our refrigerator, the cooked food I asked them to buy for us last Saturday so were able to eat something. By the time we were settled it was almost twelve no in and all of us had something scheduled on Monday! It will back to work for hubby, back to school for Liam and back to swimming school for me and Sam! I didn't have the chance to re-charge or get things organized before going back to our usual routines! So next time, no more Sunday flights for us!
C. The i-remit Visa card was not as hassle free as I thought it would be. When i make transactions and the reader recognizes it as a debit card, it lets me choose either the sa or chk account which when I both tried didn't work. I had to talk it out to the cashier to use it as a credit card or to use a different card reader. Sometimes they tried out of politeness, but others didn't. So what is the use of having a debit card? I ended up carrying big amounts of cash fearing that if I use the debit card it will not again work. Hay.
These are just the major lessons I have learned. I will be blogging about the realizations and stories of our trip next time :-)
Back to work for me :-)
